Dear Comrades!

In issue No. 135 of the *Leipziger Volkszeitung*, Comrade K. Kautsky writes about the split in Russian Social Democracy. We must ask you to print our reply to the attacks by Comrade Kautsky and to permit us to correct the factual untruths contained in the aforementioned article. We shall be as brief as possible.

Kautsky states that "the German edition of the resolutions of the Russian Congress just concluded could not have appeared at a more inopportune moment," and that the resolutions "must convey to the majority of readers a completely false picture of the conditions in Russian Social Democracy." Kautsky goes so far as to call upon German comrades not to further disseminate these resolutions.

We take the liberty of replying that nothing can give German comrades so correct a picture of the conditions in Russian Social Democracy as the authentic resolutions of the Third Party Congress of the S.D.W.P. of Russia, as well as the resolutions of the "Conference" attended by the Mensheviks.

We declare that Kautsky commits a grave error when he writes about matters which at best he knows only by hearsay, and that his depiction of conditions in Russian Social Democracy is very much distorted. For example, it is simply ridiculous when Kautsky assumes that "the resolutions (of the 3rd Party Congress of the S.D.W.P. of Russia) may already have lost their validity even for those who adopted them."[95] There have been plenty of unification negotiations between us and the Mensheviks, and there have always been plenty during the last 2-3 months, but thus far the result of these negotiations equals zero.

We protest energetically against the attempt to silence our voice in the German s.d. press by means of such a crude, mechanical, unprecedented method as a boycott of the pamphlet, which contains nothing but a translation of the resolutions of the Third Party Congress of the S.D.W.P. of R. and which was published by the Munich Party Press of the S.D.P. of Germany (G. Birk & Co.). Kautsky has no right to speak of his impartiality. He has always been partial in the current struggle within Russian Social Democracy. That was certainly his right. But whoever is partial does better not to speak so much of impartiality, lest he be accused of hypocrisy.

Kautsky depicts all the resolutions of the 3rd Party Congress of the S.D.W.P. of R. as "attacks by Lenin and his friends against Plekhanov and his friends." Three brief remarks on this. First, of the 17 resolutions, only four touch directly or indirectly upon our opponents within the S.D.W.P. of R. Second, Plekhanov has now withdrawn from the editorial board of the *Iskra*. See No. 101 of the *Iskra*. This shows how little Kautsky understands our conditions. Third, we ask German comrades to consider what impression it must make on Russian Social Democrats when a man with the authority of Comrade Kautsky attempts in this manner to tear down the work of an entire Party Congress with such a "depiction": "attacks by Lenin and his friends." What would people in Germany think of those who presumed to depict the proceedings of, say, the Dresden Party Congress (without having read the protocols) in such terms: "attacks by Kautsky and his friends"...?

A word of warning to all German Social Democrats: Party comrades! If you truly regard the S.D.W.P. of Russia as your sister party, then believe not a word of what so-called impartial Germans tell you about our split. Demand only documents—authentic documents. And do not forget: prejudice is further from the truth than ignorance. With Social Democratic greetings,

the Editorial Board of the Central Organ

(of the *Proletarian*) of the Social Democratic

Workers' Party of Russia

P.S. French Socialists understand impartiality somewhat differently from Germans. Their Central Organ, *Le Socialiste*, has just published the translation of the resolutions of the Third Party Congress of the S.D.W.P. of Russia as a special supplement.

Written in German in June, after the 12th (25th), 1905.

First published in 1931 in *Lenin Collection* XVI.

Printed from the manuscript.